Leaders of Mali’s Military Coup Seem to Have Uncertain Grasp on Power

A day after a military coup in Mali, an acute gas shortage meant long lines and high prices at the pump on Friday in the capital, Bamako, while the junta faced international condemnation.Credit
Reuters

DAKAR, Senegal — Mali’s military coup leaders struggled on three fronts Friday, as international condemnation mounted, an insurrection by nomadic tribesmen in the north gained ground and the junta was forced to condemn looting by its own troops in the capital, Bamako.

A day after overthrowing the country’s elected president and arresting his ministers, the military men who have seized power — led by Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo, who received extensive training in the United States between 2004 and 2010 — appeared to have an uncertain grasp on power in what had hitherto been one of Africa’s most stable democracies.

International dismay over Thursday’s coup seemed all the stronger because of the country’s widely acknowledged democratic record. The new government’s isolation grew, potentially perilous for an impoverished, aid-dependent country.

On Friday, the African Union temporarily suspended Mali, the European Union cut off some aid and regional leaders said they would hold an emergency session early next week in Ivory Coast to discuss the crisis. The World Bank suspended funds, and the United States has threatened a cutoff. Even China, normally reluctant to weigh in on African upheavals, condemned the coup.

The country’s democratic bona fides had appeared set for more confirmation next month, as President Amadou Toumani Touré was giving up power voluntarily — a rarity in the region — in a scheduled election.

But on Wednesday night the soldiers chased Mr. Touré from the presidential palace and took over the state broadcaster. Their leaders cited dissatisfaction with the way Mr. Touré’s government was handling a rebellion by nomadic Tuareg tribesmen in the country’s north.

In the coup’s wake, state television has periodically broadcast declarations from coup leaders condemning looting. There is an acute gas shortage in Bamako, as stations shut to forestall gasoline theft by marauding soldiers. On Friday night, the broadcaster, a key strategic asset, flashed an on-screen message imploring the population “not to give in to panic” and insisting the station was under the control of the military junta.

The whereabouts of Mr. Touré — a former general who seized power himself in the last coup, in 1991, before returning the nation to civilian rule and winning elections in 2002 and 2007 — remained a mystery. Captain Sanogo suggested to reporters, indirectly, that he was in the custody of the mutineers, though some diplomats in the capital were skeptical. The African Union chief, Jean Ping, said Mr. Touré was being protected by troops loyal to the president.

In the country’s vast desert north, where Tuareg tribesmen have been battling Mali’s army with surprising success for three months, the insurgents late Thursday claimed the capture of another town. The announcement cast doubt on the coup leaders’ stated reason for overthrowing the government of Mr. Touré: that he was incompetent in managing the northern crisis.

“We’re not here to confiscate power,” Captain Sanogo told Africable television, promising to “give up power as soon as possible.” He did not specify a timetable, however. He justified the arrest of a number of Mr. Touré’s top ministers, saying: “It wasn’t working. They failed in their duties.” The junta has suggested the ministers could face criminal prosecution.

Mali and the United States have had close military ties in recent years as part of American counterterrorism programs. According to the State Department, Captain Sanogo attended an English-language instructor course at the Defense Language Institute, a special school for international military students at Lackland Air Force Base, Tex., from August 2004 to February 2005.

Nearly three years later, in December 2007, Captain Sanogo returned to the United States, this time for more English language classes at Lackland before attending the Army’s entry-level course for intelligence officers at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., instruction that he completed in July 2008.

But the United States has roundly condemned the seizure of power, and on Friday the coup leaders continued to exhibit what appeared to be only a tentative grasp on their objectives.

“I’m asking myself some questions,” said Pierre Boilley, a Mali expert at the Sorbonne. “Is this really an organized coup d’état, since it started as a mutiny? Will it succeed? Because it is not finished. It’s possible the state will regain the upper hand.”

The country’s political class has been slow to react to the coup, stunned by its unexpectedness. But on Friday afternoon, the first signs of open opposition appeared, with several leading political parties issuing strong condemnations.

“This coup d’état cannot be justified, all the more so in that it has come about on the eve of an election that would have permitted the election of a new president,” said the Party for National Renaissance, in a statement from its president, Tiébilé Dramé, a former foreign minister. “It has set us back decades.”

Bamako was calmer than on previous days. The gunfire had died down, and some stores were open, though residents reported much less traffic than normal.

“The situation is calmer today, but people are still uneasy,” said Moctar Mariko, president of the Malian Human Rights Association. “There is a gasoline crisis. Men in uniform were helping themselves freely, and not paying.”

Like others, he condemned the coup, but also Mr. Touré’s government for mishandling the rebel invasion in the north. There is wide agreement among politicians, analysts and civil-society activists that Mr. Touré had left his relatively small army unprepared and underequipped to deal with a rebel force that had armed itself heavily with weapons from the armories of the fallen Libyan leader Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

“The government had not sufficiently prepared the army to confront the rebellion,” Mr. Dramé said in an interview. “Most of the defeats in the desert were because the troops had no motivation to fight. The Malian army was humiliated.”

But Mr. Dramé, himself a candidate, added, “In a place where there is an election in a month, it is difficult to understand why troops would take over from the government.”

Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.

A version of this article appears in print on March 24, 2012, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Leaders of Mali’s Military Coup Seem to Have Uncertain Grasp on Power. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe